Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how are aggregate disproportionate cost thresholds reviewed for (a) written Parliamentary Questions and (b) Freedom of Information Act requests; how often do these reviews take place; and on what dates have changes been made since 2000.

The Guide to Parliamentary Work, which is published online and available here, sets out that there is an advisory cost limit known as the disproportionate cost threshold which is the level above which departments can decide not to answer a written question. The current disproportionate cost threshold is £850; the limit does not apply to oral questions.

The threshold is pegged at 140% of the Freedom of Information Act cost limit, currently £600, to the nearest £50. Where a change in the FOI cost limit occurs, the Cabinet Office will make a written statement to advise Parliament of the new disproportionate cost threshold.

Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows public authorities to refuse to deal with any requests where they estimate that responding to the request would exceed the “appropriate limit”, known as the “cost limit”.

If a public authority calculates that responding to a request will take it over the appropriate limit it is not obliged to provide a substantive response. The cost limit is calculated at a flat rate of £25 per hour and since 2004 has been set at £600 for central government departments and £450 for other public authorities.